


Grounding

by JackyM



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9211559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackyM/pseuds/JackyM
Summary: Carlos is there for Cecil, no matter what.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a cute thing from my Tumblr I decided to upload here. <3

“Hey, puppy.”

“Hi, disaccharide cube!”

Cecil came home, and caught Carlos in his arms when Carlos jumphugged him. He gently kissed Carlos’ forehead, hugged him tightly, and then carried him the couch and placed him on it, giving him one more kiss on the forehead. Carlos smiled, closed his eyes, and rested his head against the couch cushions. 

Carlos felt Cecil tousle his hair. It was a warm, wonderful sensation, something that made Carlos smile every time he felt it. He reached up and held Cecil’s hand, and noticed Cecil was keeping his hand in his hair and feeling it a few seconds longer than usual.

Carlos held on to Cecil’s hand, and gently stroked it as he felt Cecil’s own hand in his hair. Carlos knew what this meant, and by extension, knew how Cecil was feeling. Words weren’t necessary exactly, but that was not to say that words couldn’t help. But, at the same time, Carlos felt a jab of worry about how Cecil was feeling. He bit his inner lip while trying to smile, scared this was all somehow, some way, his fault.

“It _wasn’t_ real, was it? Nobody else knows it was there. Nobody believes me. Kareem is scared of me because I mentioned it at all. He ran away from me, Carlos. You don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

His voice was flat. Emotionless. Carlos swallowed.

“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about, honey. I would definitely have remembered a train from another point in time coming here, because I definitely would have rushed down to the site to do any and all kind of tests on the train and the time particles stuck to it and find out as much as I could about it! I know that time particles stuck to anachronistic objects is always extremely interesting to study because they have so much scientific information attached to them! And I know I definitely did not do that today because I would have written it down, which is a vital part of recording scientific data. And none of that happened today.”

Carlos felt Cecil’s hand stop moving. It didn’t retract, it just stayed there, motionless.

“I knew it. I just imagined all of it, didn’t I? It wasn’t chemtrails or a shared hallucination or anything, it was just me imagining it. I’m imagining everything, aren’t I? How much of my life is even real, Carlos? Are you even real? What if tomorrow I wake up and find out you’re not real and never have been, and nobody except me remembers you? I worry about this all the time, Carlos. I worry all the time that you’re not real and none of my memories of you are real and that everything is just some big hallucination I’m having. Everyone feels the same was as Kareem did hearing me talk about the train when I talk about you! They think I’m weird and imagining all these things about my life because I’m so lonely and…and pathetic, Carlos.”

Carlos didn’t notice he hadn’t been breathing the whole time. He exhaled, suddenly. He realized, in that moment, so much more was going on. So much more was going on in his head, so much more was causing him to contemplate his existence, and the existence of everything happening in his life, if it even was happening, at all. Cecil was still standing next to the couch, and Carlos took his hand, gently, and pulled Cecil down next to him. Carlos kept holding Cecil’s hand, and noticed, when Cecil was next to him, that his eyes were welling up with hot tears. Carlos squeezed Cecil’s hand, and didn’t stop squeezing it. He did this in part to show support, but also, in order to show Cecil he was in fact real, and was in fact able to exert his own existence on Cecil in the softest way things could be exerted.

“Cecil. Cecil. You’re right, I don’t remember the train you saw, and were on today, and got off today. But Cecil, sometimes we experience things other people do not experience at all, because some experiences are exclusive to one person. Maybe nobody else remembers what happened today with the train from Red Mesa, but maybe that’s because for some reason, only you remember all of it. You’re probably right about the chemtrails, except, they happened to everyone else, _except_ you, Cecil. There’s no way you could have just imagined all of this, when you remember it so clearly and when you found a cockroach from the train on you! You have distinct, scientific evidence of all of it, Cecil. Did you know that once I found a type of quicksand that was actually made of water entirely and had no sand in it at all? I found it behind White Sand, and I called everyone in the lab over to the aquatic quicksand to get a look at it and make some scientific observations and help me run some field tests with our field equipment. But when everyone finally was able to gather there, the quicksand had just disappeared, as though it had never been there. Even the samples I gathered in my test tubes had disappeared completely, leaving nothing but empty test tubes. I had no proof that it existed at all which, for a scientist, is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a new scientific discovery. If a new scientific discovery has no evidence whatsoever that can be shared, that scientific discovery is not really discovered, at all. Sometimes, I wonder if that quicksand was even real. It was so exciting, Cecil! It was hardened water that formed into a sand-like substance and turned into a quicksand pit and it was even wet like actual water! It was the most interesting form of matter that I’d ever seen, simultaneously a solid and a liquid! But, Ceece…I have no proof it actually existed, at all. Sandra, the person who called me about it after a staff member fell into it and never came back up, doesn’t even remember it, and the staff member they lost, Yosef, came into work the next day and said nothing happened the day before and they were working there for the entire day. But I know I saw it, Cecil, I know that I did. And I know that you saw and were on the train that came from Red Mesa today, too, even if nobody remembers it, including me. You felt _real_ feelings and even have real evidence that it happened, Cecil! All of those things are indisputably real and that is not something that can be changed. Nobody remembers it, but _you_ do. You remember it and even if nobody else does, it happened. And all you need to do is wait for it to happen again and gather scientific evidence that it happened again. I still go to behind White Sand every morning on my way to work to check. And all you need to do is take a walk by the baseball diamond during lunch if you can, to check and see if anything new happened there. I’ll come with you too if you want! It all sounds really scientific and I want to see any evidence that it exists, too!”

Cecil had long stopped making an attempt to hold in his tears, and was sobbing into Carlos’ shoulder. He wasn’t able to say anything, other than a few sob-choked sounds that were supposed to sound like “I love you”, and Carlos knew this. Carlos kissed Cecil’s cheeks, trying his best to kiss away the tears and hug him as much as he could. Cecil hugged Carlos back, with one of those strong, clingy hugs he made when he was crying to the point of being totally unable to do anything else but cry. 

“It’s okay, poot. It’s okay. I promise, it’s okay.”

“I love you,” said Cecil, sniffling and breaking into tears again, “I love you and I’m sorry for how I was earlier. I was just…I was so upset, and so scared, of everything.”

“Shhh. It’s okay. It’s okayyyyy.”

“B-but bunny. I was mean and–”

“Shhh. No you weren’t. And I know. I know.”

Carlos wrapped his arms around Cecil, and gently kissed his forehead. Cecil curled up on the couch and let Carlos pull him closer and hug him tightly, tenderly kissing his forehead and face. With every moment, with every soft and warm kiss, Cecil focused on them, and how real and different and familiar and wonderful they all felt. Every touch he had with Carlos felt there and real and Cecil treasured them, remembering them all in stark clarity and loving them for all they were. 

Carlos dried the last of Cecil’s tears, and Cecil exhaled. He felt the warmth of Carlos’ body, and snuggled close to it, feeling it radiate within him and making him feel warm, and at home. 

“I love you, Carlos. And thank you. Thank you so much.”

“I love you too, Cecil!”

They both leaned against each other, and held each others’ hands. They didn’t know when they’d get up, but it really didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they were together, two people in one house, in a relationship that was wonderful, admirable, and most importantly, real.


End file.
